The Story. (The Serious Stuff)

The Story. A professor once told me that "The Story is everything. Everything in life stems from a story of some kind." It's something that I agree with. Stories have always had a profound influence on us. Whether they be from the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc. Even to the personal stories from people we know. We can always learn something from a story. Every day we think that our stories may not matter, that they have no point, or that they are only for us and extremely private, or that no one wants to hear it. I'm here to tell everyone that they do matter, and I always pay attention.
I've had a few weeks now without several of my vices in life, and I've been reading and reflecting, only to come to a conclusion. With an uncertain future, the stories are all that I have. I have lost the right to basic human emotion long ago, and it is only through stories that I can feel. It's the same for most human beings. Stories move us and make us passionate. They enable us to do all kinds of things. Be it the story of a parent-less child in Africa, to the story of the abused in the US, to a story of the over-privileged, stories like these have gotten people to act or do things not within their pattern of behavior. It's human kinds ability to adjust and to do things that gives us hope for the future.
Every story I see is beautiful. Whether it's the story of a young LDS Artist struggling to make her way in the world, or an opinionated redhead who has to experience everything the world has to offer, or a man who ultimately desires to do many things for other people but yet has no one who does it for him. All of these stories have different emotions associated with them, some are sad stories, some happy, some are told for amusement. Many of my family and friends have wonderful stories, but are either too embarrassed or too concerned about others passing judgment to share them with the world. Which is a grave injustice to human kind.
A good, but over used saying is "The truth shall set you free". I find this is the case with many of own personal stories. I joke about it to make light of it, but I do have many unpleasant memories of my 2nd step-father. My mother married a man named Bob. Bob was alleged, but unproven child molester. Now, I can't really speak for the truth of these statements and I was only about 6 years old, but I can speak of a meetings with my mother.
Bob had a second story house. After many years, it seems the relationship because estranged, and Bob had the downstairs of the house, while my mother had the upstairs. My mother in a fit of frustration and rage, made me promise that I would NEVER go downstairs. Some of you may, or may not know this story. However, I can tell you how my curiosity got the better of me, and my young self ventured downstairs one day. The only thing I can remember is the darkness and the cold, and the brooding sense of evil in the air that it was nearly palpable. It was a short lived trip. To this day, I don't really remember what occurred after going downstairs.
It took me quite some time before I was comfortable even sharing that story. However, now I can joke about it, and it doesn't mean anything. So, if you have some time today. Share a story with someone. If it's one that you haven't told, all the better. To quote one of my favorite monologues and endings of all time, and one of my favorite movies The Prestige. Applies quite a bit to sharing these life stories of ours. In the climax of the movie the central characters are having their showdown, and the magicians speak to one another about their trade:

(While talking to Borden) "You never understood why we did it! It was the look on their faces. The audience knows the truth. The world is hollow, shallow through and through. But, if you get them to believe, even for a second, then you've done something wonderful."

Say it ain't so, Dwayne Johnson, say it ain't so!

While perusing through FirstShowing.net, I found a movie titled Disney's Race to Witch Mountain. I am conflicted about this on so many levels. First of all, it's a movie that is a remake of one that I actually liked from childhood, Escape to Witch Mountain, which I loved as a kid.

Enter 2008, and then they wanted to do a remake. It is directed by Andy Fickman, with such credits She's The Man and The Game Plan. Which explains Dwayne Johnson's appearance. You might be asking, why would I care. The answer is this. I now have to add The Rock to my list of actors that I'll never pay money to see again. All these actors are Disney movie alums who are just looking for a paycheck. I gave him a pass for The Game Plan, but now...It just will not work out between us. So, sorry Dwayne you're going on the list with the likes of:
- Eddie Murphy
- Vin Diesel
- Adam Sandler
- Robin Williams
- Martin Lawrence
- Paul Walker
- Brendan Fraser
- Rick Moranis
- Michelle Trachtenburg
- John Travolta
- Anne Hathaway
- Tim Allen
- Cuba Gooding Jr.
Also, inevitably it's going to be one of those crappy Disney remakes that disappoints on so many levels. Which will inevitably get me into a fight with some soccer mom, at the video counter. For Example (This has happened in the past):

One day, while at a local Blockbuster, I decided that I would buy a recent zombie flick. While checking at the counter, after I asked the blue-shirted Blockbuster rep about the movie, a woman in her 40's brazenly told me "Why would you watch that!? Those movies are crap. The church even says that someone shouldn't watch them. The prophet says you shouldn't watch them."
She then proceeds to ask, "Do you guys have a copy of 'She's the Man'?"
Of course, I had to lay into her, "So, I'm not supposed to watch a zombie movie, but you'll rent a move about a 19 year old who cross dresses and tries to hook up with with pre-marital intercourse with another teen and early 20 year old. That's okay to you? Remind me, how does the church feel about cross-dressing!?"

Personally, I don't want to get into these kinds of exchanges. I want soccer mom's to live in their little diluted world, and I'll live in mine. This is why with humble shame, that I have to throw Dwayne Johnson into the "do not support" category! It was good knowing you Dwayne through "The Rundown", "Walking Tall", and various crappy action movies but those days are gone.

Here's the difference between a good movie and bad one...

Today, I want to make some contrasts. There have been 2 vampire movies released recently in the Salt Lake Valley. The first, Twilight. Based on a series of books.


The second, Let the Right One In. Both are about Vampires, and love and all that stuff. However, one is done the right way, and one is done the wrong way.


Both movies are centered on a sort of love story, which fits based on the psychological and literal history of vampirism. However, Twilight is all about teeny bopper high school kids. It's just another teenager about beautiful kids who just "aren't understood". It's so full on teenager angst, that I almost had to call in a trip to mall, just to calm the kids down. If you don't want to pay the full price for a movie ticket, you can also see the horrible movie, The Covenant and get the same thing.
Let the Right One In, however, is about a young man being bullied and made fun of. It's the perfect story about early adolescence and about gender confusion. It's a simple love and admiration story. There's nothing sexual about it, but there definitely is some sexual tension between characters. The movie itself captures the feelings of trying to figure out early sexuality. The story has some brilliant camera work. Sometimes covering a gruesome scene, and other times giving it an all too real feeling. Overall, it's a great piece of film. Much better than a Hollywood style dribble that's created for every novel written. Anyone who wants to see a good vampire flick. Ditch this Twilight crap, and see Let the Right One In.